Francesca and Sharkey

Off to Sarasota and The Ringling College of Art and Design

After taking off from Kinston Regional Jetport, we left North Carolina and headed towards our next destination in Sarasota, Florida at Ringling College of Art and Design. Founded in 1931, Ringling College of Art and Design, is a private institution with a lovely campus upon forty-nine acres. It is highly regarded as one of the top design schools in the world and both students and alumni are heavily recruited by organizations such as Pixar and DreamWorks.

We were there that day to have a meet and greet with David Shapiro, Co-Founder of Future Films, LLC along with his business partner, Sam Logan. Future Films has been working with the school to develop the Ringling Digital Filmmaking Studio Lab, a groundbreaking program that combines education with film development. The Studio Lab is designed to provide Ringling College students majoring in Digital Filmmaking hands-on experience with top-tier directors, producers, writers, and cinematographers, as well as help Sarasota become an integral part of the film industry. We were very impressed with our visit to this school and are thinking of ways to perhaps utilize some of these young, energetic, and talented students as interns at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

1 We first went to the Keating Center, a fully-restored 1920s-era hotel, which was originally purchased by the school's founder, John Ringling. Upper floors are student housing with offices on the ground floor, where we met the president.

2 Here we are with college president, Dr. Larry Thompson.

3 This is the Ulla Searing Student Center, another multipurpose building on campus - student housing, Computer Animation and Game Art & Design studios and classrooms, fitness center, café, etc.

4 Environmental responsibility is a core philosophy on the Ringling College campus. The architectural footprint of the student center was built around the base of these 80-year-old oak trees.

5 The three story Academic Center atrium features a Dale Chihuly glass wall installation, measuring nearly 6 feet in diameter.

6 The Chihuly work is a gift to the college from Sarasota residents Dr. Richard and Barbara Basch and is part of their extensive glass art collection.

7 The lobby outside the Advertising Design and Motion Design classroom/studio space on the third floor of the Ringling Academic Building.

8 The Student Center houses the Computer Animation program. Film posters line the hallways of the studio space with plaques below each one listing Ringling College alumni names who worked on each film.

9 Ringling graduates have worked on all top 10 animated features of all time, and its students have been rewarded with numerous Student Academy Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

10 Each Computer Animation classroom provides a teacher station and projection that can mirror what the faculty member is doing so that all students in class can learn together.

11 Gael Towey, me, and Kevin Sharkey looking at the work of a senior computer animation student. Instructor and Department Head, Jim McCampbell described the project progress to date.

12 An animated student short entitled “Anchored” by graduate Lindsey Olivares, won 'Best of Show' at the 2009 SIGGRAPH Asia. Lindsey is now employed at DreamWorks Animation.

13 Evan Mayfield’s 'The Visionary' - a story about a frog learning to wear a new pair of contacts, a Student Academy Award winner in 2008. Evan now works as an animator at the Walt Disney Company.

14 The frog

15 Each year, Advertising Design majors are challenged to create a costume and 'be the brand' of one of their favorite advertising icons. This class photo are the freshman of 2008.